[3] In the 2020s the use of off-budget funds dramatically expanded, with the total (multi-year) potential deficits by the end of fiscal 2022 coming to 400 billion euro, about 10% of 2023 GDP.
However, like the budget itself, special funds may only be established by law and are subject to control by the Bundestag, the German Bundesrat and the Federal Audit Office (Art.
[3] The use of off-budget funds is not new: state-owned enterprises were allowed to issue their own debt under the 1924 law that covered initially postal service and railroads (at the time, the Reichsbahn and the Reichspost,[5]).
To avoid this issue, the coalition passed a law that money "accumulated" in the funds (due to allocations in the previous years with the break suspended) can be spent off-budget.
[12] In 2023 the court declared unconstitutional the repurposing for KTF of the pandemic funds allocated under a temporary emergency suspension of the debt brake.